MANDELA'S TROOPS SEEK A NEW ROLE

The African National Congress's guerrilla wing, Spear of The Nation, is struggling to find a new sense of mission following the congress's decision a year ago to suspend its long-term threat of working toward armed struggle against Pretoria.

Though the Spear of the Nation's guerrillas can now come home from their camps in African countries to the north under a Government amnesty announced Friday, their leaders are unwilling to fully demobilize the fighters, viewing them as leverage to be used in future negotiations with the Government while also hoping that the guerrillas might play an important role in whatever South African army emerges after those talks.

Though the Congress's commitment to armed struggle was always a mostly hypothetical option, its formal suspension has enhanced the homesickness and restlessness of guerrillas at camps in far-away Uganda and Tanzania, while others who already returned from exile or South African prisons have experienced difficulty finding housing and jobs. Force Put at 5,000

Spear of The Nation refuses to disclose how many men and women it keeps under arms. They are believed to number at least 5,000 guerrillas, including those based abroad. Under the repatriation agreement exiles will be able to come back but without arms.

Chris Hani, chief of staff of Spear of the Nation, observed that when guerrillas emerged from the bush in neighboring Zimbabwe and Namibia, "these movements were on the verge of becoming governments. So they were about to take control of Government resources."

By contrast, the African National Congress, he said, "is still involved in that struggle. The Nationalist Party is still in power and it commands all the resources of the Government." As a result, the congress continued to take responsibility for the guerrillas' welfare.

Speaking at a conference of Spear of the Nation in Thohoyandu, the capital of the nominally independent ethnic homeland of Venda, Nelson Mandela said the African National Congress had to maintain Spear of The Nation as a fighting force "until a democratic constitution has been adopted with a view to the integration of its personnel into a new defense force." Mr. Mandela is a founder of the force and as head of the congress serves as its commander in chief. A Long Stay in Camps?

With the African National Congress unwilling to give up its military card before it completes negotiations with the Government, the guerrillas could remain in camps for the foreseeable future, though this is hardly likely to improve morale.

For all the mystique surrounding Spear of The Nation, critics allege that it waged one of the most ineffectual wars of liberation in Africa. Wynand Breytenbach, the Deputy Minister of Defense, told reporters last February that he could not evaluate the guerrilla movement's prowess because the South African military had never engaged it in battle. In fact, the security forces prevented the guerrillas from establishing a base inside South Africa.

The war was waged foremost with bombs and mines, many of which exploded at shopping centers, snack bars and bus stops. Pretoria sentenced captured guerrillas to the gallows or prison as common criminals.

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Tokyo Sexwale, a guerrilla commander who now heads special projects for the congress. contended that the guerrilla activities boosted black hopes for freedom while destroying the morale of white soldiers. Impact of Bombs

"If you explode one bomb," said Mr. Sexwale, who spent 13 years in prison, "25 million people get excited about that bomb."

Another difficulty facing the leaders of the force has resulted because many of its traditional foreign patrons have lost interest or even befriended the white-minority Goverment. For example, the Soviet Union, which helped finance, arm and train Spear of The Nation, has opened an informal diplomatic mission in Pretoria. East Germany, another old supporter, no longer exists. Former African allies like Angola, Ethiopia and Zambia are preoccupied with their domestic changes.

"In the past, we got assistance from various countries. It is not going to be the same anymore," said Mr. Sexwale.

"So we will have to look at various avenues," Mr. Sexwale said. "What happens to the maintenance of our army in the meantime is a very serious problem." 'The War of the Flea'

"We all know this war was the war of the flea," said Ronnie Kasrils, a guerrilla commander who claimed that the fighters had tied down large numbers of South African troops.

Morale in the camps seems to be causing concern. Some guerrillas reportedly are impatient to go home now that the congress is talking to the Government. Walter Motaung, a political commissar who returned from Angola, said it was natural for the guerrillas to feel homesick.

"But our comrades do understand the situation in which we find ourselves," he said.

The prospect of integrating them into the present South African military has been rejected, first by Gen. Magnus Malan, when he was Defense Minister, and then by guerrilla leaders like Mr. Hani. So the congress has begun to reshape its force into a conventional army.

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A version of this article appears in print on August 21, 1991, on Page A00017 of the National edition with the headline: MANDELA'S TROOPS SEEK A NEW ROLE. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe